Daiya no Ace the Live III review
I went to Daiya no Ace the Live III on Sunday. It was my last full day in Tokyo (I had the joy of flying out the next day in the middle of the typhoon), and I managed to get hopelessly lost on the way to the Zep Blue Theatre and only managed to arrive 5 minutes before the start.
The theatre itself is really fantastic. It’s quite small with only 23 rows, but it means that every seat in the house has a fantastic view of the stage. Because this trip happened very last minute this was the only show that wasn’t sold out and I was back in row 19. Originally I thought this might limit what I saw, but all the facial expressions and little moments were beautifully clear.
The show itself is based largely on the Yakushi High vs Seidou match. Admittedly, it’s not one of the most interesting matches in the series. However, the production values are just brilliant. The way they use the stage to portray the game itself was very, very cool. There isn’t a huge amount for most of the characters to work with, in part because the game itself isn’t entirely interesting, but also because the pre-match stuff isn’t some of the more character driven in the series. That’s not to say that some of that pre-match stuff doesn’t have an impact (which I’ll get to later), but that it’s limited to a couple of characters. As a result, secondary characters like Kuramochi don’t really have much to do. In fact, I would say even Sawamura and Furuya are fairly limited in their roles – the result of four pitchers being used due to the relay effect, but also because while the actors themselves are certainly good enough, there isn’t anything about their interpretation of the characters that made them really stand out.
In contrast, there were some real stand out performers. As small as his part was, Tetsuya just radiated personality. The show starts with him walking on his own onto the stage, and his whole aura gave me goosebumps. It was a little weird to use ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ throughout all of this, but the power of Tetsuya managed to overcome even that. Of the secondary players, Chris’ actor was also fantastic at portraying his dry humour with a hint of longing and regret.
The MVPs were definitely Miyuki and Zono, however. Wada Takuma As Miyuki was just a revelation. The way in which he captures all of Miyuki’s little nuances – the way he looks at Chris, the quiet hurt but resignation when Tanba rejects him, his sheer joy when it comes to baseball, his laughter but also his annoyance when one of the pitchers misbehave – it was all just absolutely perfect. And the way in which he ‘played’ baseball? Oh my. None of the other actors even came close to the beautifully elegant yet powerful way Miyuki would swing his bat or catch. There was this one elongated scene where Miyuki had a monologue while he was up at bat, and the way in which he swayed and moved with his bat as he spoke was actually gorgeous. And. His catching. Seriously. The fluidity in which he moved, the strength that was clearly there in his lines – it was almost as though there were dance elements involved. He really captured in this subtle, interesting way just how difficult it actually is to catch for Tanba, Sawamura, Furuya and Nori with all their individual issues and weaknesses. I left with an even greater respect for his catching skills, and that’s what you really wish for in an adaption – to gain something new from it. I could certainly watch Wada Takuma as Miyuki all day.
And! Zono! Just fantastic. Definitely more of a cheerleader/comic relief, but he and Kanemaru as the peanut gallery up in the rafters as the game went on was fantastic. They came down just before the match itself started with the managers, and lead us all through the series of cheers for Tetsuya, Miyuki, and co that we see in the manga and anime so that we could all chant them at the appropriate times. It was a really cool and surreal part of the show when we became an actual part of it, cheering along as though these were our players instead of a performance we were watching.
Even though the other characters were fine, I think that because Miyuki, Zono, Tetsuya, and Chris were such standouts, that the rest sometimes felt one dimensional in comparison. Like, Raichi was perfectly enjoyable and incredibly fun to watch, but I wanted more from him – some sense of depth, I think. Sanada was the only one who felt miscast, as I couldn’t really connect with him at all. I would say he was the only real weak point.
Overall it was a really fantastic performance that did an incredible job of capturing one of the less interesting parts of the manga in a real fun and creative way. Little things like how they recreated the anime opening were just so ridiculously cool that you just had to smile.
I even ended up buying the programme, which I never do, because the pictures inside looked so fantastic. I took a risk and picked out a blind keychain as well, and was lucky enough to end up with Miyuki.
Now, if only we could have a DnA musical, especially if it was in line with the insanity of the Bleach one.
